I am full of exclamation marks!
Day 101 of my tree puja.
In which my reading of Bentov’s book validates and expands the experience I’m having with the tree puja.
I am reading Bentov, Stalking the Wild Pendulum, and have just started the section entitled, ‘Construction and Maintenance of a Nature Spirit’. I am full of exclamation marks! So of course, I had this in mind as I went about the puja.
Dissolution
Day 88 of my tree puja.
In a philosophical frame of mind these days, considering my own, and the tree’s, and even the power pole’s, absence.
One day, we cannot know when, the tree will be no more, I will be no more, the house, the buzzing power pole, all the things that seem so permanent, will die and crumble, somehow…
The elements are in balance
Day 76 of my tree puja.
Balance, the elusive goal, is experienced.
The elements are in balance – earth, water, fire, air, and space…
Protective energy derives from love.
Day 70 of my tree puja.
I sense the energy exchange between us.
I stood beneath the tree, doing the things, chanting the mantras, asking that all trees may be loved, respected, and protected as she is…
Keeps nothing it does not need
Day 63 of my tree puja.
Amidst the complexity of human society, the lessons from the tree are simple.
It has been raining. I have been away for a few days in northern Tasmania, visiting and interviewing for my work…
Comfortable in earth and sky
Day 62 of my tree puja.
Yesterday I put the sprinkler on to water the tree. Today, I sense her relief.
The tree is no longer thirsty…
Thank you for the water
Day 61 of my tree puja.
Winter and spring were non-stop rain. Now the soil is dry, the days are hot, and the tree is stoic.
I have no incense and it’s too dry for flames…
The ritual is peace
Day 60 of my tree puja.
New insights into the ritual are revealed to me. I develop an understanding of esoteric ideas in the yoga tradition associated with Hindu deities.
It’s like a mudra, an energy conductor. It is the energy of shelter, and protection, and compassion, which is also in the whole ritual…
Outside my bedroom window
Day 59 of my tree puja.
I suppose that feelings of acceptance and belonging go together.
Today I felt simple acceptance from the tree.
It is all a language
Day 55 of my tree puja.
I realise that the offerings made in the puja are more than symbols, or gifts. They are a language.
It is all a language, for me and for the tree. I will leave it to the tree now, to begin to listen again, when she wants to…
Today I am better prepared
Day 54 of my tree puja.
Earth, water, fire, air, ether… the elements are the foundation of ritual in India, acknowledging the building blocks of life.
I squatted on the earth and my feet felt how hard it has become.
I am back from India
Day 53 of my tree puja.
I return after more than a month. It’s midsummer and the tree is coping with midsummer heat.
While I was away, all the long grasses and undergrowth were cleared from the front garden, so that there is open space through to the road. I gather that this disturbed the tree at the time and still does. I apologised. But where are the devas to live?
Water at their roots, light on their leaves
Day 48 of my tree puja.
The showiness of spring has another side to it - nature is just getting on with being alive. Flowers, leaves, roots, branches, everything working together.
…warmth above and below and nothing to fear. The rose is sending long, ambitious red arms up into the tree…